1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an image forming device for forming on a recording medium an image corresponding to an electronic mail received via a communication line from a computer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Data as an electronic mail is conventionally transmitted and received between personal computers via a communication network system such as internet. More specifically, an electronic mail transmitted from a sender""s side is received by a personal computer at an addressee""s side. The data is stored as received mail data in a storage device such as a hard-disc. An operator at the addressee""s side reads the contents of the electronic mail if necessary. Or, when read via an application software (hereinafter, xe2x80x9capplicationxe2x80x9d) started on the personal computer, the mail data is delivered to an image forming device connected to the personal computer, for example, a printer, so that an image corresponding to the electronic mail is formed on a recording medium such as recording paper.
In the above-described image forming technique, data in the electronic mail is first read by an application such as a word-processing software. The read data is then delivered to the printer to be formed into the image. These processes require much time. The personal computer having received the electronic mail cannot carry out other processes in this time period. mail cannot out other processes in this while.
In view of the above-described problem, an electronic mail to be transmitted is proposed to be accompanied by a print file for a printer. When receiving an electronic mail accompanied by the print file, the personal computer directly delivers the received mail to the printer so that an image corresponding to the mail can be formed by the printer. Accordingly, the application such as the word-processing software need not be started and the received electronic mail need not be read via the application in the personal computer at the addressee""s side. This results in efficient use of the personal computer.
However, an electronic mail received by the personal computer at the address""s side is not always accompanied by the print file depending upon the sender thereof. Accordingly, the addressee needs to judge whether the received electronic mail is accompanied by the print file, on the personal computer. The addressee further needs to start the application such as the word-processing software when judging that the mail is not accompanied by the print file. Thus, image formation cannot be performed in the conventional printers according to the electronic mail when it is not accompanied by the print file. Consequently, the personal computer cannot completely be released from the processes of the received electronic mail by directly connecting the printer to the internet etc.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an image forming device which can form an image corresponding to a received electronic mail whether or not the electronic mail is accompanied by the print file.
The present invention provides a printing apparatus comprising image forming means for forming an image on a recording medium, electronic mail receiving means for receiving an electronic mail, and control means for controlling the image forming means according to contents of the received electronic mail whether or not the electronic mail is accompanied by a print file, so that an image corresponding to the electronic mail is formed on the recording medium. The control means includes judging means for judging whether the electronic mail received by the electronic mail receiving means is accompanied by a print file, first image formation control means for forming the image corresponding to the electronic mail in a form based on a print file when the judging means judges that the electronic mail is accompanied by the print file, and second image formation control means for forming the image corresponding to the electronic mail in a previously set form when the judging means judges that the electronic mail is not accompanied by a print file.
According to the above-described image forming device, the control means controls the image forming means according to the contents of the received electronic mail whether or not the electronic mail is accompanied by a print file, when the electronic mail receiving means receives the electronic mail. As a result, an image corresponding to the received electronic mail is formed on the recording medium. In other words, the image forming device is capable of forming on the recording medium the image corresponding to the received electronic mail while being directly connected to the communication line of the internet etc. via no personal computer. Consequently, the personal computer can completely be released from the processes of the electronic mail.
In a preferred form, the control means includes judging means for judging whether the electronic mail received by the electronic mail receiving means is accompanied by a print file, first image formation control means for forming the image corresponding to the electronic mail in a form based on a print file when the judging means judges that the electronic mail is accompanied by the print file, and second image formation control means for forming the image corresponding to the electronic mail in a previously set form when the judging means judges that the electronic mail is not accompanied by a print.
Furthermore, the image corresponding to the electronic mail is formed on the recording medium in the form based on the print file when the received electronic mail is accompanied by the print file. On the other hand, when the received electronic mail is accompanied by no print file, the image corresponding to the electronic mail is formed on the recording medium in the previously set form.
In a preferred form, the control means further includes second judging means for judging whether the received electronic mail is accompanied by any accompanying file other than the print file when the judging means judges that the received electronic mail is not accompanied by the print file, third judging means for judging whether the accompanying file is usable for image formation when the second judging means judges that the received electronic mail is accompanied by the accompanying file, and third image formation control means for forming the image corresponding to the electronic mail in a form based on the accompanying file when the third judging circuit judges that the accompanying file is usable for image formation.
In another preferred form, when the accompanying file other than the print file is an image file, the third judging means judges that the accompanying file is usable for image formation. Further, when the second judging means judges that the received electronic mail is accompanied by a plurality of accompanying files other than the print file, the third judging means judges whether each of the plurality of accompanying files is usable for image formation. Various types of image files may be used in the present invention. For example, a tagged image file format (TIFF) or a joint photographic experts group (JPEG) may be used. Upon use of these types of files, the form of image formation can readily be defined by making use of a facsimile mode of the forming device.